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Under the Canopy
On Outdoor Journal Radio's Under the Canopy podcast, former Minister of Natural Resources, Jerry Ouellette takes you along on the journey to see the places and meet the people that will help you find your outdoor passion and help you live a life close to nature and Under The Canopy.
Episodes
153 episodes
Episode 152: New Baby Joy, Tick Safety, And A Fresh Chaga Summer Brew
A tiny newborn can turn the strongest routine into a brand-new adventure, and that’s exactly where we start. I sit down with my son Garrett to celebrate the arrival of baby Gritten, unpack the story behind his one-of-a-kind name, and talk hones...
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Episode 151: New Chaga Tea Blends Plus Practical Gardening Answers
Boiling water for chaga tea sounds simple, but it sparks a surprisingly big question: are we helping extraction, or hurting the good stuff? We dig into why we put “boiling” on the packaging, what many chaga studies actually do when they prepare...
Episode 150: How Ontario Manages Forests And Herbicide Use
A spray plane over a cutover can spark instant outrage, but the real story sits in the details: what’s being sprayed, why it’s used, what gets protected, and what trade-offs we’re actually making. We start with a listener-driven question on Cha...
Episode 149: Stone, Sand, And Gravel Explained For Everyday Life
The modern world feels like steel and glass, but it actually starts with something far less glamorous: stone, sand, and gravel. We sit down with Sharon Armstrong, Executive Director of the Ontario Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association, to unpack ...
Episode 148: A Forest Classroom For Curious Kids
A kid points at a tree and says, “What is that?” and suddenly you’re talking about pollination, fungi, water, carbon, and how a forest quietly runs like a living system. We head to Millbrook Elementary School for a hands-on walk with grade thre...
Episode 147: How Raised Garden Beds Boost Early Harvests And Save Your Knees
A good garden doesn’t start with a miracle fertilizer. It starts with smarter structure, better soil, and a few hard-earned lessons from people who grow things for real.We’re recording from the Lindsay Thursday Market at Wilson Fields a...
Episode 146: Bring Back The Salmon
Lake Ontario used to hold one of the largest freshwater Atlantic salmon populations anywhere on Earth and then, within a single century, it was gone. That disappearance wasn’t a mystery or “just nature.” It was the predictable outcome of overfi...
Episode 145: What Ticks And Parasites Are Doing To Moose
Your dog is your best buddy, so tick season hits differently when the prices jump and the risks feel real. We start with a listener-driven problem: how to protect our dogs from ticks and Lyme disease without getting gouged, including why some o...
Episode 144: You Can Help Save Black Ash By Collecting Seeds
We talk with Vince from the Invasive Species Centre about how emerald ash borer is driving black ash toward endangered status in Ontario and what it means for wetlands, forests, and people. We also share practical ways to prevent the spread of ...
Episode 143: Foraging Wild Leeks In Ontario With A Film Set Chef
Spring doesn’t wait, and neither do ramps. When the forest floor finally opens up before the leaves fill in, wild leeks and ramps hit their short Ontario season and they are one of the most flavourful foods you can forage. We talk through where...
Episode 142: Northern Ontario Spring Reality Check
Southern Ontario is cutting grass while northern Ontario is still buried under feet of snow and that isn’t just a fun weather story. It’s a real window into what it costs to live, work, and build a life under the canopy when your “driveway” is ...
Episode 141: Chaga Tea Updates From Ontario Cottage Country
The world keeps getting louder, but the outdoors still teaches if you slow down enough to listen. We’re back with a spring check-in that starts on the highway and ends in the bush: I share what it was like driving across Canada with my son Garr...
Episode 140: Maple Season Secrets
Yellow sap in your bucket can feel like a panic moment, and it’s exactly the kind of mystery we love digging into. We sit down with Jeff Wagner of Wagner Maple Products, a working Ontario maple syrup producer, to sort out what’s normal, what’s ...
Episode 139: From Calgary To Ontario Through Every Season
A two-day drive across Canada will teach you more about weather, planning, and patience than any motivational quote ever could. We pick up right after a sprint of travel and shows, then hit the road from Calgary back to Ontario, watching storms...
Episode 138: Ruffed Grouse Habitat Basics
A grouse doesn’t need a “perfect wilderness” to thrive. It needs the right kind of forest, at the right stage, with the right cover in the right places. From the Toronto Sportsman Show, we sit down with Derek from the Rough Grouse Society of Ca...
Episode 137: Ontario By Bike
Quiet lessons from the outdoors are still there, but you have to choose to hear them, and sometimes that starts with something as simple as getting on a bike. We open with a bit of real life seasonal talk, storms rolling through, a dog who stil...
Episode 136: A Former MNR Biologist Explains Why Wildlife Counts Are Never Simple
Counting wildlife sounds like a spreadsheet problem until you try doing it over millions of hectares of bush, broken habitat, bad weather, and animals that do not want to be seen. We sit down with Bruce Ranta, a former Ontario Ministry of Natur...
Episode 135: Spring Readiness For Gardens And Yards
Ready to turn late-winter restlessness into a real plan for spring? We dig into the choices that matter right now: how to secure fruit trees and berry bushes before they’re gone, which seeds actually germinate, and the simple gear that keeps yo...
Episode 134: Trail Work, Maple Sap, And Chaga Stories
Spring is waking up the woods, and we’re right there with it—clearing a new footpath at first light, dialling in a wood stove that keeps the house comfortable on two small splits, and chasing the first hard runs of maple sap with a sled full of...
Episode 133: Bird Songs, Decoded
We trace the first hints of spring from fresh snow and maple taps to a deep dive on bird communication with Dr Megan Gall, a sensory ecologist who studies how sound shapes behavior. Practical tips help you build healthier feeders, steward water...
Episode 132: Wood Heat, Winter Dogs, And Hard Lessons From Nature
Frost bites, dogs sprint, and the stove hums while we chase warmth, clarity, and good judgment. That’s the energy today as we trade real-world winter tactics, laugh through a peanut-butter nail trim hack, and dig into the thorny question of who...
Episode 131: Inside Earthquakes - Science, Safety, And Canada’s Risk
When the ground moves, stories surface—about how faults fail, why small quakes ripple across provinces, and how a few seconds of warning can change outcomes. We sit down with seismologist Marika from Earthquakes Canada to translate seismic scie...
Episode 130: Emus, Rheas, And The Farm Life
A six-foot flightless bird doesn’t just change your pastures—it changes your business model. We sit down with an Ontario rancher who started with a simple idea in the early ’90s and built a resilient operation around emus and rheas, turning a n...
Episode 129: Alpacas, Fiber, And Winter Woodstoves
Wood heat hums, snowbanks rise, and the small rituals of winter living turn into hard-won wisdom: how to stretch a stack of deadwood, read a stove thermometer, and keep the creosote at bay. From there we pivot to what the cold teaches our bodie...
Episode 128: What Anchors Us When The Weather Turns And Life Shifts
A bluebird thaw turned blizzard overnight, and that whiplash becomes a guide to living smarter in winter. We start at the wood pile—why ironwood carries the night, how to plan heat days ahead, and where all that ash can actually help your yard ...